Archive for October, 2009

EP – Bathing in the New Economy – Emmet Swimming

Posted by admin on 17th October 2009

Emmet Swimming is a band that while they’ve been on my radar, I somehow hadn’t manage to pin them down for a listen. Until now. After receiving an email from one of the many PR companies, I have a wonderful relationship with, I figured now was the best time to at least have a quick listen, to see what they were all about. And in a word, or maybe two in this case, “Hoochie Momma”. This is a band that are no strangers to the rock scene, having been around since 1991. Indeed they have had 3 albums with Epic Records, but in 2000 took an extended break. After listening to the first track on this EP, I gather things maybe went a bit sour. This EP was originally released in 2003, but I’m hoping that it will be a bigger hit second time around, as I definitely want to hear some new stuff from this, my new awesome find.

The EP is available in 2 versions. Digitally from iTunes, it comes with 4 tracks and 1 bonus track. From Amazon, also digitally, it comes with an additional bonus track.

The EP opens with “The Dance” which is a fantastic slow burner. Straight out of the gate, it’s the vocals that hit you. They remind me a lot of Brad Roberts, without the quirkiness, but they’re deep and wonderfully powerful. On this track there appears to be something of a backhanded comment, regarding Epic, which I find interesting. I’m guessing the label figured they’d run their course and didn’t want to do another record. Well this EP is well and truly a one figured salute (two figured in the UK) to Epic.

“Don’t Call” is again a slow burner, featuring a different, not so dark sounding vocalist. There’s no denying though that it’s a wonderful track. In fact this is the track that really got me hooked on Emmet Swimming, but I now find I much prefer “The Dance”. “Heart Like an Eskimo” again features “The Dance” vocalist (I need to learn my vocalists), but the song is much lighter, reminding me at times of a happy Nick Cave.

“Joanna at the Door”, is an interesting song, which wouldn’t sound out of place in the Pulp Fiction movie, but I’m afraid it does nothing for me. It has that latin rock sound, and indeed the lyrics are all in Spanish, but it feels most definitely like the odd song out. There is however an interesting guitar solo, about 2 third of the way in, that goes on for the remainder of the track, which goes some way to lightening up how I feel about it.

We’re now into bonus time. The 1 extra bonus track from iTunes is “Door 2”. Flagged as explicit, it’s not quite the racy track, that the term explicit always has me expecting. It’s a very grunge sounding track, and relatively short at just over two and a half minutes. The second extra bonus track on Amazon, is “Waving at Cars”, a very upbeat track, which rounds off the EP nicely.

Conclusion : I’m hoping I haven’t come to Emmet Swimming too late. Yes this maybe a 2003 re-release, but if you don’t have it, I’d say it’s a definite purchase for your collection. Here’s hoping for a new release, sooner, rather than later.

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